CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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jaj6786, when you say “treatment” I’m guessing you mean the exorcism journal, not his private medical records.
fatherbowdern, interesting observation. Could it be because in this case Ronald’s name is being in the context of an exact quote from the Devil (notice quotation marks) as opposed to how the priests refer to him?
I did see the quotes, however, in the diary the references to another individual is hashed out. So, I’m thinking it was an egregious error. I don’t think the priest journaling would have used “R’s” full name since he was so careful in making sure it only appears that way elsewhere. Good thought though.
Oh, dsea, have you read the diary? Some of the actual quotes are so similar to what Blatty wrote that he must have had access to diary prior to writing The Exorcist.
Oh, I’m not saying that Blatty read the diary at all before writing The Exorcist novel. I have always been under the impression that Blatty did not actually get to read the actual diary itself, but that the story was conveyed to him through Father Bowdern or Father Halloran (I don’t remember which one or if I have the priest right).
And, of course, I’m pretty sure this “diary” is a typed up version of the hand-written “diary.” We really don’t know how well it was interpreted (or if it could be at the expense of penmanship) on the part of the transcriber.
Still I’m not sure if I can “buy” any of it. Some things are just plain vague … the bed shaking (well, we can all do that if we’re on top of it) and the urinating (big deal) and the farting (whoopee … no pun intended).
As far as things being flung from one side of the room to another, there’s nothing to indicate poltergeist activity in the diary notes. Ronald could have just thrown the holy water bottle off the nightstand into the corner of the room and the part about him grabbing the bottle could have been left out.
But, I still rank The Exorcist as my favorite novel and movie. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s based on a “real” story. It’s Blatty’s writing technique, both for the novel and the film, that enraptures its audiences.
Yes Browdern, I was aware that Blatty had read the diary previously. Apearently the priests were so appalled by the result that they “burned” the diary to prevent others from doing the same.
I guess the priests are human and make mistakes. I was under the impression that the diary was an unedited manuscript so that is probably why the oversight survived.
Well it was obviously typed up by someone eventually. Afterall its on the web in text format (could had been OCR transcribed) but the question is by whom and why.
I believe the diary was passed on to the Dr. at Gabriel Behavioral so he could comment on the Discovery Channel special.
Blatty requested the diary but was refused. The story I have heard (and it seems like a bit of a stretch) was that a construction worker that helped tear down the St Louis hospital where part of the alleged exorcism occurred, found it and gave it to Blatty.
I believe he says something to that effect in “The Making of the Exorcist” book. I am absolutely certain he read the diary before he wrote the book.
A lot of the legend type aspects turned out to be not mentioned in the actual diary. Such as the priest being slashed open with the bed spring. Most of the more supernatural claims were not witnessed by the priests. They were told to them by R’s family.
The other thing was the priests were not there to debunk R’s claim. They were there to heal him. The diary just reports what the events as they saw them.
Um, I seriously doubt it is an OCR version that we see on the www … have you ever seen a software program that works well enough to turn handwriting into text? I haven’t. Most programs have a hard enough time with “typed” text to be legible.
Anyway, I do believe that Blatty “may” have been refused access to the diary, but I’m sure the contents were conveyed well enough by one of the priests to come up The Exorcist novel. And, it makes sense because Blatty was studying, at one point in his early life, to become a Jesuit priest, correct?
This is one of the cases that inspired Blatty.
http://bibleprobe.com/1928exorcism.htmPage 22 from “William peter Blatty on The Exorcist From Novel to Film”
Man that is a great find! Once again, its what the “devil” said from a theological perspective that is most interesting. The idea that he cannot know confessed sins for instance. Its all very interesting ideas, but unfortunately theological ideas are in no way proof that the possession was genuine.
I did find it interesting that priest noted that the woman was vomiting great quantities despite not having eaten. It said she could not take in solid food and was being fed intravenously. This is very reminiscent of Regan in the movie that was on some kind of feeding-tube without any explaination given. I find it odd too that Regan vomited such large quantities to begin with, but even stranger if she was fed intravenously. Where did the vomitus come from? Was it ectoplasm? Why was no effort made to analyse its content?
Thanks guys. I am fairly certain the details of the 28′ exorcism are greatly exaggerated. There are a couple other cases I can’t recall off the top of my head. You can definately see where the 28’case influenced “The Exorcist” though.
Very interesting reading for sure! I don’t think anyone but the people directly involved with these cases can say for sure if it was real or not – maybe even they can’t be 100% sure.
Next year will be the 50th anniversary since Ronald Hunkerler’s exorcism. 50 years is a long time. I wonder why he doesn’t ever talk about it. He named his kid Michael, after Michael the Archangel who helped get Satan out of him, so it’s not like he thinks that the whole exorcism is a joke. Some think he was faking, but if you were faking an exorcism would you name your kid after a joke? Do you think he’ll ever tell his side. I mean 50 years. It must have crossed his mind sometime.
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